ABU DHABI – SBG head coach John Kavanagh hopes Dillon Danis will shift his focus from YouTube boxing fights to making a run in MMA.
Danis is coming off a more-spectacle-than-sport boxing match against YouTuber and WWE SuperStar Logan Paul in the co-main event of Misfits Boxing: The PRIME Card in Manchester, England. It was a contest where Paul showed up to fight, but Danis had other plans as he taunted, pulled guard, shot for takedowns, and ultimately got himself disqualified by causing a massive brawl.
Coach Kavanagh hopes his pupil focuses on what he’s best at going forward.
“I say this with nothing but love for Dillon, he knows I love him: I’d love to see him just put the phone down for a minute, and come back to Dublin,” Kavanagh told MMA Junkie. “I’ve been torturing him come over to Dublin. I know he just had a wee baby, and we’re all excited about that. I’d love to see him come to Dublin again and just throw himself into training for mixed martial arts. He’s an MMA fighter, he’s not a boxer.”
In a series of social media posts following the event in England, Danis fired a two-word message that aligns with Kavanagh’s wishes: “UFC next.” Danis’ last professional MMA bout was in 2019 at Bellator 222, where he submitted Max Humphrey with an armbar in the first round. It was just his second pro MMA fight, which followed another first-round submission in his debut, which also came under the Bellator banner 14 months prior.
The gap in his resume since his Bellator appearances can partially be attributed to a serious knee injury that required multiple surgeries. It was a situation that required him to go under the knife on more than one occasion to address the same issue as the procedures didn’t go as planned.
With all of that behind him, Danis appears ready to compete on a more regular basis, and Kavanagh hopes that means he will come back to SBG, or at the very least, just focus on MMA.
“He’s an MMA fighter, and exceptional when you see him in the gym. The guy’s never quite realized that he’s been very unlucky with a set of injuries, and this and that. I hope he got some good money out of boxing and put that in the trust fund for the kid, don’t be buying fancy shoes or nothing like that. Get back to my gym or another gym, wherever. Get the head down and show everybody what you can do in the cage.”
